A break-in, and USB Power

May 2015.

Summer’s here and we decided to go camping at our super-secret-undisclosed-location-that-you-have-to-rush-to-or-someone-else-will-get-there-first.

While there, we had a great time, including an epic fire that was bigger than our daughter.

But being four years old, and sitting in the back seat for three hours each direction, @mini.turbodb understandably got bored and started playing around (unbeknownst to us) with the back window in the truck, ultimately leaving it unlatched/unlocked.

No biggie, except that when we got back, I parked the truck in the alley behind the house and left it overnight, where some young hooligan randomly happened to try the back window and found it unlocked. As far as I can tell, they then wriggled themselves in through the window and tried to remove the new stereo I’d installed a couple years earlier.

They failed. But not before trashing the center dash — breaking, bending, and scratching several of the plastic components.

Oh and if they’d had a screw driver, and weren’t such a hooligan, they could have removed the stereo with 4 screws and no damage. But life is life.

As I waited for the center console to come in, I realized that I could use this as an opportunity to upgrade the truck in a major way. USB ports. I’d been using an adapter that plugged into one of my three cigarette lighters, but in 2015, we can do better. I bought a 12v, 2-port socket meant for boats, but that with the front rectangular panel removed, happened to be the same diameter as the socket for one of my cigarette lighters.

In it went, and pow. Now I can charge two phones at the same time, right from the dash. And it looks stock, right down to the green LED when it’s powered.

Take that hooligan.

[EDIT Oct. 2017]
I’ve since replaced this USB charger with a different model due to some RFI issues is was causing.
See Mod wars — USB charger RFI vs. Ham Radio

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